Retirement in Portugal is very good and we have a tremendous amount of new people retiring here.
For the Portuguese who are retiring, because we’ve been through a big economic crisis here and they’ve had to cut down pensions, there are a lot of people struggling. The new government has promised that that’s all going to change but then you’ll wonder where they’ll get the money. But certainly for foreigners coming here, it’s fantastic to retire in Portugal.
There are several reasons its fantastic to retire to Portugal. Number one, the climate; number two, the wines; number three, the weather; number four, the people who are sympatico to foreigners. The lifestyle is easygoing. I think the weather helps a tremendous amount for people who are golf players or riders. A lot of people go horseback riding and a lot of people have brought their horses here. Portugal has an easy lifestyle.
A lot of people will go down to the Algarve, which is completely different to being up in the Lisbon coast area. The Algarve is sort of a permanent holiday atmosphere, almost like an extension of Spain except all of a sudden you’ll hear Portuguese and a lot of English. I’m not a great fan of the Algarve region because I don’t think it has a Portuguese identity. You know, you don’t feel that you’re really in Portugal even though there’s beautiful beaches, there’s beautiful homes, but that’s it, whereas up here you have good theater, you have good concerts, good shows, and you can still do all that—you can ride horses and you can be on the beach.
It really is a relaxed kind of life filled with lunch parties and coffee parties. And with the big expat community that you have here, it’s good social life and a lot of people will entertain at home a great deal.
I live in the Lisbon coastal area, about 20 minutes on the train from the center of Lisbon and if you drive, depending on the time of day, of course, it’s about 20 minutes as well if you haven’t got all the traffic. Nothing’s very far here. We’re a little bit inclined to think, when we’re out in Cascais in Estoril, “Oh gosh, I’ve got to go into Lisbon” and vice versa, but it’s really very, very close. The style of life in Lisbon is more city life than it is along the coast. It’s quite different but I think that it’s mainly because parking is more difficult in Lisbon and there’s a lot more traffic.
(Trains from Lisboa to Sintra, Portugal, pictured.)
You don’t need to own a car in Puerto Vallarta because the transit system here is fantastic. There are three levels of transport here in Puerto Vallarta: the taxi, which will get you there quickly and will cost the most of the three options; the bus, which has the lowest cost and has the most frequent stops; and then in between are little white vans that you can share with 6 or 8 other people and hop on, and hop off. These little white vans are in the mid-price range, have less...
In the period of less than half a day, our senses and emotions had experienced quite a workout. In the morning, we were on a ferry in the Sea of Cortez, headed towards Mazatlan. In Mazatlan, we were treated to an entirely new concept: jungle in an urban setting. From there, we had found the toll road, breezed through green and wooded highland farmland, and then gradually descended into a profusion of jungle, not only on the sides of the road, but overhead, as we glided...
So there we were, in our van, after taking the Baja Ferry from La Paz and disembarking at the port at Mazatlán. 
My new Mayan friend had a beautific smile. Most likely in her 50s, I met her as she and her family were making and selling sandwiches from the very small porch in front of her home with the half wall she used as a built-in shelf. On the street was a solitary plastic table covered by a plastic tablecloth, with two plastic chairs.